Germany's coal use hurts European climate deal

As the European Union (EU) tries to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next 16 years, Germany's rising pollution is threatening to topple the plan.

With the largest economy in Europe, Germany has increased consumption of coal by 13 percent in the past four years, Bloomberg reports.

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In Britain, the No. 3 economy, use of coal has risen to 22 percent.

Despite vowing to cut emissions 55 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels, Germany has cut 25 percent so far, but is heading in the opposite direction, the European Environment Agency states.

The EU is trying to reach a deal in October that would set reductions of greenhouse gas emissions at 40 percent by 2030. It would be the world's largest effort to fight climate change since the Kyoto treaty in 1997.

“Both the U.K. and Germany are on a collision course with Poland,” Maciej Bukowski, president of the Warsaw Institute of Economic Studies, told Bloomberg News. “To cut emissions, it needs to spend a lot of money up front,” he said, predicting a 50 percent chance the October deadline will slip."